May WIPocolypse Report & A Happy Dance

Another month has sped by and it's time for my May WIPocolypse update! We saw the beginnings of my VoHRH Block 4 last month, and this month we get to see if finished!

I'm going to have to restitch the goat-dog-animal on the right because he blends in with the fence too much. I'm using the Vikki Clayton HDF conversion and sometimes the colors need a little tweaking.

Here is a shot of the whole sha-bang so far. I'm 1/3 of the way done now!

Back in March, Phil treated me to a trip to House of Stitches in LaPorte, IN. I'd bought the Winter, Autumn, and Summer charts from Blackbird Designs and wanted to find just the right linen to stitch them on. I chose a lovely piece of 36-count linen in Lentil from Lakeside Linens, and we also picked out the fibers for all three patterns. Phil got to learn about dye lots and why, if I thought I needed more than one skein of a certain color, I should buy them all at the same time. The shop ladies had a lot of fun with him being there, that's for sure!

I got started on stitching Winter right away, but being a 36-count linen I had my usual dilemma of whether to use two ply of thread or one. I did some sample stitching in both and everyone I showed it to said to go with two ply. I wasn't convinced that was what I wanted to do, thinking the stitches would look a too crowded and that maybe I should go with one ply for a more delicate look. A month later I still hadn't made up my mind! This was a project I'd been foaming at the mouth to stitch, and it had become a cat mat! (Doesn't matter where you hide it, they'll find it!)

When May rolled around I knew I needed to shake the cat hair off the linen and make a decision once and for all, otherwise all those carefully selected fibers were in danger of finding their way into other project bags. I'm stitching with two ply since that is what everyone agreed looked best. I worked on it for a bit last night and so far I'm loving it. Here's my progress so far (you can see the letter P still stitched with one ply.)

That's all the stitching I have to share this month. We've been super busy with last minute details on Phil's house. He'll be closing this month so we're plenty excited!

I'm looking forward to checking out everyone's progress for May! I hope I wasn't the only bad girl who started a new project!